1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic article surveillance (EAS) and more particularly to electronic tag decommissioning.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic tag identification like the identification of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags is an area of automatic identification and electronic article surveillance that has quietly been gaining momentum in recent years and is now being seen as a radical means of enhancing data handling processes, complimentary in many ways to other data capture technologies such bar coding. The object of any RFID system is to carry data in suitable transponders, generally known as tags, and to retrieve data, by machine-readable means, at a suitable time and place to satisfy particular application needs. Data within a tag may provide identification for an item in manufacture, goods in transit, the location of an item, the identity of a vehicle, an animal or individual. By including additional data the prospect is provided for supporting applications through item specific information or instructions immediately available on reading the tag.
An RFID object tracking system requires, in addition to RFID tags, a means of reading or interrogating the tags and some means of communicating the data to a host computer or information management system. In this respect, an RFID object tracking system also can include a facility for programming data into the tags. Notably, the tags can be active and powered in nature, or passive and unpowered in nature. Communication of data between tags and a reader can be by wireless communication. Two methods distinguish and categorize RFID object tracking systems, one based upon close proximity electromagnetic or inductive coupling and one based upon propagating electromagnetic waves. Coupling is via ‘antenna’ structures forming an integral feature in both tags and readers. While the term antenna is generally considered more appropriate for propagating systems it is also loosely applied to inductive systems.
RFID systems can be roughly grouped into four categories: EAS systems, portable data capture systems, networked systems and positioning systems. EAS systems typically involve a one bit system used to sense the presence or absence of an item. Portable data capture systems, by comparison, can be characterized by the use of portable data terminals with integral RFID readers and can be used in applications where a high degree of variability in sourcing required data from tagged items may be exhibited. Networked systems applications can generally be characterized by fixed position readers deployed within a given site and connected directly to a networked information management system. The transponders are positioned on moving or moveable items, or people, depending upon application. Finally, positioning systems use transponders to facilitate automated location and navigation support for guided vehicles.
Potential applications for RFID may be identified in virtually every sector of industry, commerce and services where data is to be collected. The attributes of RFID are complimentary to other data capture technologies and thus able to satisfy particular application requirements that cannot be adequately accommodate by alternative technologies. Principal areas of application for RFID that can be currently identified include: transportation and logistics, manufacturing and processing, and security. A range of miscellaneous applications further can be distinguished, including animal tagging, waste management, time and attendance, postal tracking, airline baggage reconciliation, and road toll management.
Despite many of the apparent advantages of RFID technology, standards in industry to protect the privacy of customers and individuals are not yet clearly defined. There is a concern that any individual with a transmitter, not just the manufacturer, may be able to activate and detect a dormant RFID tag. For instance, counterfeiting, theft and product recalls present considerable risks for drug producers, distributors and pharmacies as drugs move from production to consumers. Additionally, after being discarded into the trash by a consumer, an RFID tag may be used to track consumer behavior.
A variety of manual schemes are used today in order to “kill” an RFID tag in order to preserve consumer privacy, such as personnel manually scanning collected RFID tags to decommission it. The collected RFID tags usually need to be brought to a central station to get decommissioned. Besides physically detaching the tag from the associated object, these schemes add an additional step, thus increasing the operations costs and decreasing operational efficiency.
Another drawback of current manual schemes result in the personnel who decommission the RFID tag not necessarily being the same personnel who physically remove the RFID tag from the tagged object. However, the personnel decommissioning usually need to use an RFID reader which is typically located away from the operational area where the personnel physically removing an RFID tag operates. Thus, this could lead to a situation where an RFID tag may still be associated with the original detached object but associated with a new object as well, causing an incorrect ePedigree in the RFID system. Therefore, current schemes require additional manual labor to detach and decommission which result in additional steps.